The present invention relates generally to vehicular lighting control schemes, and in particular, to an interior lighting control system for an automobile.
Conventional methods for controlling interior vehicle lighting systems generally include either two switching power feeds and one ground connection to multiple lamp assemblies, or two switching ground connections and one power feed to multiple lamp assemblies. In either case, there are a minimum of three circuits required per lamp assembly to achieve the desired functionality. Essentially, interior vehicle lights need to function in a manner that allows the interior lamps to be controlled at the lamp assembly using a lamp switch, and also separately when a door is open or the interior dome switch is turned on.
In accordance with the teachings of the present invention, a lamp assembly has first and second input terminals, adapted to be coupled to an electric power source, a lighting element having a first end and a second end, the first end coupled to the first terminal, a dual position manual switch coupled between the second end of the element and the second terminal, and a diode coupled between the second end of the element and the second terminal. This arrangement allows the lamp assembly to illuminate the lighting element either via the manual switch or automatically by selecting an appropriate polarity of the potential appearing across the first and second terminals. In addition, the lamp assembly circuit of the present invention reduces the number of circuits required to perform the desired functions which results in substantial cost savings per vehicle.